I never thought I’d travel to Cork for an hour, but last Friday I had booked myself in for a manuscript makeover with James Harpur. This was the second time I’ve used this mentoring service, which is part of the Cork Spring Poetry Festival and I wanted to see how some of my new work […]
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Interview: The London Ear
I was interviewed on RTE 2XM’s London Ear programme before my reading this weekend at Jewish Book Week. What made the interview a little bit different was I was being interviewed by a long time family friend who hosts this arts show based in London for Irish listeners. In the interview I spoke about how […]
Shortlisted for Shine/Strong
Apart from having my book published, last week I got the best news. Jewtown has been shortlisted for the Shine/Strong award. This award is for the best first collection of poetry by an Irish poet. There are three Irish poets shortlisted for this award and apart from me, they are Stephanie Conn (also of Doire […]
Published Honest Ulsterman
I’m happy to have had 3 of my poems published in the Honest Ulsterman. The three poems were all written when Emrys was very tiny and possibly in the middle of the night. I decided not to send them off for at least a year or two to try and make sure that they weren’t […]
Two new books
I was delighted to get my hands on two new books this week. Cold Coffee at Emo Court by Arthur Broomfield, and Several Deer by Adam Crothers. The second book has been shortlisted for the Sine/Strong Award along with me and Stephanie Conn so I had to check out the competition! I’ve already read the first […]
On the Banks – poetry about Cork City
I was interested to see a new anthology of poems about Cork City that was published recently and edited by Alannah Hopkins with support from the Munster Literature Centre. It is a large anthology of poems about Cork City. It contains lots of well-known poems from history, (The Banks of the Lovely Lee), with several poems […]
Launch of Representations of Jews in Irish Literature
I had a fantastic evening in Waterford IT where I launched the exhibition of Representations of Jews in Irish Literature, which is touring Ireland and beyond. This was the first time I’ve done a poetry event without doing a reading, as such. I was asked to give a presentation on how I came to write Jewtown. I […]
Next on the list: Paula Meehan
My pile of books got bigger again today. I couldn’t resist buying Paula Meehan’s Geomantic. I am very attracted to the mathematical nature of these poems and can’t wait to dive in. Unfortunately, it has to go on a waiting list behind A Land Not Theirs by David Marcus, Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton […]
Shortlisted for Strokestown
One of my newer poems, Conception, has been shortlisted in the International Poetry Festival in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon. The results will be announced at the festival at the end of April. As part of being shortlisted, I have been invited to read some of my poetry at the festival.
Jewtown available in Dubray Books
I didn’t realise that Jewtown was available to buy in the wonderful Dubray Books until I accidentally spotted it there in their Kilkenny branch.